Campaign  Georgia
A  Political  Journal

Books

Zell Miller’s latest book,  A National Party No More, is a short, easy read.   It’s a fun  book, or perhaps, two fun books. 

First, it’s a biography.  No More  tells the rags-to riches story of a kid from Appalachia with humble beginnings who made good, indeed  has had spectacular success in politics and otherwise.  He’s been a small town Mayor, Georgia State Senator, Lieutenant Governor for sixteen years, Governor for eight years, and United States Senator.  He’s been a teacher, college professor, writer, bank owner, and on the Boards of Directors of major global corporations.

This small, maybe overpriced book, reveals the down home virtues and character-building experiences of growing up in rural North Georgia. It should be noted, though, that Zell may have been poor, but he was surely well up the socio-cultural ladder in his neighborhood. He talks about his determined and heroic mom, who raised the family and built the house with her own two hands.  His service in the Marine Corps.  His youthful misbehaviours.  We are given a picture of  a guy born to hard times who battled them, succeeded, and was made a better man by them.  It’s an entertaining and inspiring true story.

The second book is essentially a tract on how a man with this pedigree brings its values and lessons to public life.    Mr.  Smith  Goes to Government kinda thing.  It’s a crowd pleaser, especially a media crowd pleaser.

The title states the principal theme of the book:  the national democratic party no longer represents all the people or regions of the country, especially the South.  But his criticisms and observations basically apply to all politics and politicians today, not just the democratic party.  He  deplores the enormous sums of money spent on campaigns, he lambasts the degree to which special interests control Washington.  He attacks taxes.  He even criticizes the arrogance of government toward those governed.  He  seems  to embody Mr. Smith--honest, straightforward, a champion of the sensible, hard-working, Mr.  Everyman.  And he does so in clear, often witty prose.

Problem is, when one reads this book and compares it with Zell’s record and conduct during all those years in office,  he seems to be saying,  “Do what I say do, not what I have done.”  True, he sometimes includes himself among those who chase campaign funds and having cozied up to a special interest or two.  After  all, he didn’t get on those corporate boards until he left the governor’s office, after eight years of supporting almost every corporate agenda laid before him.

In his inaugural speech as Governor, Zell said “I’m going to be a one-term Governor . . . I’m going to be . . . hated when I leave office.”   As Lieutenant Governor, Zell projected  himself as  a country music fan from Appalachia  in cowboy boots with  a college degree and sort of red-neck liberal attitude.  It endeared him to the public and, of course, to the liberal--I mean  “moderate” “centrist”--  media.  Georgia’s organized labor contingents  loved Zell,  and supported his elections with manpower and money.

When he became Governor,  the state faced problems  Miller  helped create as Lieutenant Governor.  Prosperity in the 80s brought a big increase in spending on state programs, and recession arrived  early in 1991.  Zell solved the crunch with new fees on vehicle tags,  drivers licenses, visits to state  parks and cutbacks, mainly in the number of  state employees, and ending their annual pay increases.  Long before his term as Governor was over, Miller ended the state merit system for employees and the protections and compensation it had offered them.  This candidate of organized labor also ended the  State Employees Association, the union-like organization which was supposed to promote and protect their interests.  Maybe that’s when some began to consider Zell  a “conservative”.

Zell excoriates arrogant, elitist officeholders in his book, but until his successor Roy Barnes took office, Zell was the most arrogant Governor  in Georgia’s recent history.  He tried to raise taxes by executive order.    His Attorney General issued an opinion backing him.  But his action was immediately challenged in Superior Court, the judge ruled against Miller, and he didn’t even try to appeal the decision.  He demanded members of the State Board of Education  resign  before their terms ended, so he could appoint new ones.

He recounts one such power grab in the book, portraying himself as good guy.  The Transportation Board is set up in Georgia’s constitution.  It hires the chief administrator.  This arrangement is meant to guarantee the board’s independence from the Governor.  Zell ignored this.  In the book, he says, “I wanted my own highway director”.   He didn’t let the Constitution stand in his way.  He fed the board members at the mansion,  and demanded they fire the director and hire his man waiting outside to meet them.

When they refused, he told them the media was waiting, and if they did not give in to him, he would slash their budget and set up a new statutory  board to take their power and budget away from them.  He had the Speaker and  Lieut. Governor there with him. The Board surrendered, the constitution was subverted, and Mr. Miller got his way.

Besides the state flag and tax instances, Governor Miller failed in another power grab.  Georgia’s constitution provides all judges shall be elected by the voters.  Civil Rights groups and the U.S. Justice Department had a long-standing problem with this because not enough black judges were elected to suit them, and a suit was filed.  Miller decided to settle the suit by entering into an agreement with the civil rights groups, Justice Department, and federal court to end elected judges in Georgia and let the Governor appoint them all.   He almost got away with it.

He was stopped by one legislator.  Senator Don Cheeks of Augusta refused to allow Georgia’s constitution to be scrapped by this private sellout.  He filed suit against the settlement.  The United States Supreme court ruled Governor Miller and the Justice Department had no power to set aside Georgia’s constitution, and the people’s right to elect judges was saved.  Don Cheeks is still a state senator, and should be considered a hero by the people of Georgia.

When one reads the several pages Zell devotes to the state flag, it might be well to remember  what J. P. Morgan, the old Robber Baron, said about motives,  “There are the reasons men give for their actions.  And there are the real reasons.”

Once  the NAACP had gotten not only a national Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, but one in almost every state, the organization turned its attention to erasing the confederacy and all its artifacts from society.  The first target was the most visible and loved southern emblem—the confederate flag, which happened to be part of  the Georgia state flag.   Black activist legislators started introducing bills to change the state flag in 1987.  The  yuppies  at the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce  also wanted a non-southern flag fitting for  “International Atlanta” and the upcoming Olympics.  

Not much happened to get it accomplished until 1992.   By  1992, Zell Miller was an unpopular governor.  That spring, Democratic Attorney General Mike Bowers wrote a guest editorial in the Atlanta papers calling for the state flag to be changed.  A couple days later,   Governor  Zell Miller announced he would seek to change the state flag  in the 1993 legislative session.

According to a knowledgeable source at the State Capitol,  Bowers was going to run for Governor against Zell in 1994, and his call to change  the state flag was an early effort to get black support in the democratic primary.  The real reason Zell jumped on changing the flag  was to forestall black support for Bowers.  All things considered, I believe my source was telling the truth.

By 1993, Zell Miller had national status.  His 1990 campaign managers were Bill Clinton’s 1992 Presidential campaign managers.  He had been a prominent supporter of Clinton, had even spoke at the Democratic Convention.

Miller knew the national media fell all over themselves  praising Jimmy Carter in 1974,  for hanging MLK’s portrait in the State Capitol.  The flag change  would give Miller good national press.   And he did a great job.  His speech against the state flag was almost devoid of fact, but masterful propaganda.  He praised confederate heritage while calling for its eradication.  He even called up references to the courtroom in To Kill A Mockingbird. He failed to change the flag, but succeeded in ending any challenge Bowers may have entertained for 1994. He got his national press, which swooned over his flag efforts.  And, more important, he was the first to publicize and give credence to the invented arguments against  confederate heritage and the 1956 Georgia flag which others have since promoted incessantly.

In sum, A National Party No More is fun and somewhat informative.  But mainly it’s an apparently very profitable  advertisement for Zell Miller.  His career has been spectacularly successful.  But the record shows Zell Miller is no Mr. Smith gone to  Government.  Rather he has been a political craftsman akin to those he criticizes, often more so.

Lincoln said you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time.  But you can’t fool all the people all the time.  That was then.    Today, I  suspect most of the people are being fooled most of the time.  And even P.T. Barnum couldn’t ask for more than that.

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